For a few months now i keep having some issues with my net connection. I have a 50Mbps dl PPPoE cable connection (dynamic IP) from a local ISP to which i have been a customer for more than 6 years now. So far i didn't have major complaints, they steadilly increased the dl and upload speed since i begun using their services. From around 1Mbps to 50Mbps now. But in the past 2 or 3 months their DNS started acting on me. From time to time it stops responding and denies access to the internet (although the local area connection is working at 100% and my log in data is valid).

Besides this "denial of service" (i presume it qualifies as one)getting discconected i also keep getting errors on youtube like "The video is not responding, please try again later". As a solution someone, in a random post i found, suggested to switch to Google's public DNS by changing the settings. I should note that my ISP's recommendation is to use Obtain ip address (ipv4 and ipv6) and DNS automatically.

I'm by no stretch of the imagination an expert when it comes to networking so i came here to ask:If i change the DNS (to Google's free to use DNS) can the ISP fault me in some way (as infringement of the TOS) and/ or deny me access to the internet simply because i'm not using the automatically obtained DNS (which i presume belongs to them)?

Also what is the common practice when it comes to DNS for home connections?

For reference my OS is Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x86 64 bit

Last edited by Arclight on Sun Oct 21, 2012 4:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

nVidia video drivers FAIL, click for more infoDisclaimer: All answers and suggestions are provided by an enthusiastic amateur and are therefore without warranty either explicit or implicit. Basically you use my suggestions at your own risk.

I haven't read your ISP's Ts&Cs but I wouldn't have thought they'd have a problem with you changing them. It's not like it's hard for you to change them back if there's a problem.

The only reason I can think of for changing your DNS servers causing problems is if your ISP has a crappy site blocking system that works through DNS. In that case they may even have blocked access to 3rd party DNS servers.

Common practice with home connections is to use the DNS provided by the ISP, however it's also fairly common practice for consumer ISPs to have slow and unreliable DNS servers! It's no uncommon to find that changing DNS providers to someone like google or opendns improves matters no end.

I haven't read your ISP's Ts&Cs but I wouldn't have thought they'd have a problem with you changing them. It's not like it's hard for you to change them back if there's a problem.

The only reason I can think of for changing your DNS servers causing problems is if your ISP has a crappy site blocking system that works through DNS. In that case they may even have blocked access to 3rd party DNS servers.

Common practice with home connections is to use the DNS provided by the ISP, however it's also fairly common practice for consumer ISPs to have slow and unreliable DNS servers! It's no uncommon to find that changing DNS providers to someone like google or opendns improves matters no end.

Are there any other more realible/ trustworthy free DNS besides Google's? Knowing Google recent track record regarding privacy what risks would i be facing using their DNS?

Edit:I just tested Google's DNS and i can connect to the net just fine. Will have to do more testing to see if i get the DNS not responding error again or the youtube errors but so far so good. Regardless my question above still stands.

nVidia video drivers FAIL, click for more infoDisclaimer: All answers and suggestions are provided by an enthusiastic amateur and are therefore without warranty either explicit or implicit. Basically you use my suggestions at your own risk.

I would be surprised if switching DNS providers is a violation of TOS. The recommendation to use the automatic DNS setting is probably just to reduce the number of tech support calls they get from people with incorrect DNS settings.

This does not sound like a DNS issue to me, it sounds like a general connectivity issue. The issue could be pretty much anywhere from your own firewall/router/modem up through the ISP's links to the Internet backbones.

Next time you're surfing, try leaving a couple of ping commands running: one to your own firewall/router (the IP address that is set as the default gateway in your PC), and one to your ISP's first hop router (the IP address that is set as the default gateway in your firewall/router). When an interruption occurs, see if either of the pings has dropped any packets. This will help narrow things down a bit; if both pings continue to run clean when you're having trouble surfing, then the problem is likely to be further upstream.

The years just pass like trains. I wave, but they don't slow down.-- Steven Wilson

I would be surprised if switching DNS providers is a violation of TOS. The recommendation to use the automatic DNS setting is probably just to reduce the number of tech support calls they get from people with incorrect DNS settings.

This does not sound like a DNS issue to me, it sounds like a general connectivity issue. The issue could be pretty much anywhere from your own firewall/router/modem up through the ISP's links to the Internet backbones.

Next time you're surfing, try leaving a couple of ping commands running: one to your own firewall/router (the IP address that is set as the default gateway in your PC), and one to your ISP's first hop router (the IP address that is set as the default gateway in your firewall/router). When an interruption occurs, see if either of the pings has dropped any packets. This will help narrow things down a bit; if both pings continue to run clean when you're having trouble surfing, then the problem is likely to be further upstream.

Can you give me the cmd commands? The only command i know is "ping http://www.example.com" and it does like 4 passes (send/receive packets) then it stops. How can i do it for a long time and what's the command for stopping it? Note, i don't have a router, the cable is plugged in directly in the back of my desktop PC. Also i have only the Windows 7 built in firewall and Avast free AV. Where do i find out the default gateway in the firewall?

Edit: i found how to ping for unlimited time"ping -t ip" the when i want to stop "ctrl+C". But i still haven't found the the IP address that is set as the default gateway in my firewall/router. Need some help for that.

Btw i won't be regarded as spamming/flooding right? Again i ask noobish questions because networking is really my weak point. I never looked into it because for so long now my net connection worked flawlessly.

Last edited by Arclight on Sun Oct 21, 2012 12:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

nVidia video drivers FAIL, click for more infoDisclaimer: All answers and suggestions are provided by an enthusiastic amateur and are therefore without warranty either explicit or implicit. Basically you use my suggestions at your own risk.

Do you know if your broadband modem has a firewall/router in it? What is shown as the default gateway if you run "ipconfig /all" in a command prompt window?

Edit:

Arclight wrote:

Btw i won't be regarded as spamming/flooding right? Again i ask noobish questions because networking is really my weak point. I never looked into it because for so long now my net connection worked flawlessly.

At the default ping rate of once per second nobody will care (or even notice).

The years just pass like trains. I wave, but they don't slow down.-- Steven Wilson

Do you know if your broadband modem has a firewall/router in it? What is shown as the default gateway if you run "ipconfig /all" in a command prompt window?

Broadband modem? I...don't have one, i think. PPPoE connection means i only have a cable which i stick into the network card in the back on the PC case, then i configure the connection with username and password from Network and Sharing Center> Set up a new connection or network,....nothing else needed. Again, i'm a novice, so fell free to talk to me as if i was an idiot and explain step by step.

Last edited by Arclight on Sun Oct 21, 2012 4:01 pm, edited 2 times in total.

nVidia video drivers FAIL, click for more infoDisclaimer: All answers and suggestions are provided by an enthusiastic amateur and are therefore without warranty either explicit or implicit. Basically you use my suggestions at your own risk.

Do you know if your broadband modem has a firewall/router in it? What is shown as the default gateway if you run "ipconfig /all" in a command prompt window?

Broadband modem? I...don't have one, i think. PPoE connection means i only have a cable which i stick into the network card in the back on the PC case, then i configure the connection with username and password within windows....nothing else needed. Again, i'm a novice, so fell free to talk to me as if i was an idiot and explain step by step.

There still has to be some sort of box (probably with status lights on it) that the other end of the cable is plugged into.

What does "ipconfig /all" say?

The years just pass like trains. I wave, but they don't slow down.-- Steven Wilson

Since i presume there are sensitive info in there i deleted most, tell me what you need from there and i'll in the reply post.

Last edited by Arclight on Sun Oct 21, 2012 8:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

nVidia video drivers FAIL, click for more infoDisclaimer: All answers and suggestions are provided by an enthusiastic amateur and are therefore without warranty either explicit or implicit. Basically you use my suggestions at your own risk.

Under "PPP adapter NET" section, the Default Gateway IP address is what you are looking for. I believe you removed it.

If that's what justbrewit! is trying to help me find, i already found and used to ping. I thought he was trying to help me find something else. The default gateway i found in Network and Sharing Center> Change Adapter Settings> Broadband Connection> Status> Details> ipv6 Default gateway (ipv4 Default Gateway is blank). But regardless i am already pinging it, i thought he was reffering to something else within the settings of the firewall of my computer. I don't have the modem in house, i think there is a device on the street (idk if it's a modem or something else) which distributes cables to different households but that's out of my access.

nVidia video drivers FAIL, click for more infoDisclaimer: All answers and suggestions are provided by an enthusiastic amateur and are therefore without warranty either explicit or implicit. Basically you use my suggestions at your own risk.

The IPv4 gateway is blank? That's surprising. If your connection to the 'net is IPv6-only then I'm afraid I'm in a bit over my head.

Does your ISP have a web site, and does it respond to pings? At the very least, you could do that to give some indication of whether the connectivity issue is between you and your ISP, or your ISP and the outside world.

What version of Windows are you running?

Also, if you're comfortable sending me the complete "ipconfig /all" output via PM (as opposed to posting it publicly) that might be helpful. TBH the information isn't that sensitive (and the most potentially sensitive piece -- your public IP address, if you're not behind a router -- I already have access to anyhow as a forum admin).

The years just pass like trains. I wave, but they don't slow down.-- Steven Wilson

The IPv4 gateway is blank? That's surprising. If your connection to the 'net is IPv6-only then I'm afraid I'm in a bit over my head.

1. Does your ISP have a web site, and does it respond to pings? At the very least, you could do that to give some indication of whether the connectivity issue is between you and your ISP, or your ISP and the outside world.

2. What version of Windows are you running?

3. Also, if you're comfortable sending me the complete "ipconfig /all" output via PM (as opposed to posting it publicly) that might be helpful. TBH the information isn't that sensitive (and the most potentially sensitive piece -- your public IP address, if you're not behind a router -- I already have access to anyhow as a forum admin).

1. Yup, they have a website, i didn't try to ping it while the DNS was DOS-ing disconnecting me but i know for certain that the local area connection was working, i could even play CS on LAN. Hopefully using Google's DNS will fix it. Since i switched DNS today i haven't experienced another disconnect but will have to test for at least a week to know for certain the issue is fixed.

2. I think i mentioned above, Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64 bit.

3. Thank you for the offer, but i'm not comfortable doing that. I hope you're not offended.

I'll just call them up tomorrow and see if they intend to do something about it. If the youtube errors will continue one month from now i'll probably try to switch to another ISP. I have tried everything to fix it, i reset my IE 9's settings, i deleted temp files and especially cookies as so many suggested, i reinsintalled flash, i changed DNS, i tried other browsers but nothing fixed it. Prior to a few months ago this error (the youtube i mean) NEVER happened so i'm inclined to believe that it's either the ISP's fault (most likely) or youtube's fault (highly unlikely since there are only a handfull of people suffering from this).

Last edited by Arclight on Mon Oct 22, 2012 1:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

nVidia video drivers FAIL, click for more infoDisclaimer: All answers and suggestions are provided by an enthusiastic amateur and are therefore without warranty either explicit or implicit. Basically you use my suggestions at your own risk.

1. Yup, they have a website, i didn't try to ping it while the DNS was DOS-ing me but i know for certain that the local area connection was working, i could even play CS on LAN. Hopefully using Google's DNS will fix it. Since i switched DNS today i haven't experienced another disconnect but will have to test for at least a week to know for certain the issue is fixed.

Yes, I know; we're not trying to diagnose your local connection to other PCs in your residence. We're trying to figure out whether the problem is between you and the ISP, or the ISP and the outside world.

Arclight wrote:

2. I think i mentioned above, Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64 bit.

Arclight wrote:

3. Thank you for the offer, but i'm not comfortable doing that. I hope you're not offended.

Not offended at all. I just think you're being overly paranoid, especially given that I already have access to the public IP your PC uses to access the Internet (which is the most personally identifiable piece of info that could potentially be revealed by your network configuration). Absent a court subpoena for ISP logs, the public IP address is only identifiable down to the level of a city (possibly a neighborhood); it's not like someone can easily figure out your exact street address.

E.g., running a geolocate on my own public IP address resolves to a location about 30 miles from here.

Arclight wrote:

I'll just call them up tomorrow and see if they intend to do something about it. If the youtube errors will continue one month from now i'll probably try to switch to another ISP. I have tried everything to fix it, i reset my IE 9's settings, i deleted temp files and especially cookies as so many suggested, i reinsintalled flash, i changed DNS, i tried other browsers but nothing fixed it. Prior to a few months ago this error (the youtube i mean) NEVER happened so i'm inclined to believe that it's either the ISP's fault (most likely) or youtube's fault (highly unlikely since there are only a handfull of people suffering from this).

Yup, as I've already noted it sounds like a problem with the ISP or your connection to the ISP. If (as you say) there's no broadband modem in your residence, it really is their problem.

Edit: If you're plugged directly into the wire that goes to your ISP, how did you play CS on LAN? Did you physically move the cable to connect it to the other PC?

The years just pass like trains. I wave, but they don't slow down.-- Steven Wilson

[...]Edit: If you're plugged directly into the wire that goes to your ISP, how did you play CS on LAN? Did you physically move the cable to connect it to the other PC?

Nope and i suppose you're insunuating that the box i mentionened to be located on my the street and stems cables to multiple homes is proof that that's the modem? I do not have a cable that goes directly into the ISP's servers. Regardless the DNS issue is a non issue now that i know i can change it. The issue i have is with the error i get on youtube that seems to have no solution, on my end.

nVidia video drivers FAIL, click for more infoDisclaimer: All answers and suggestions are provided by an enthusiastic amateur and are therefore without warranty either explicit or implicit. Basically you use my suggestions at your own risk.

Nope and i suppose you're insunuating that the box i mentionened to be located on my the street and stems cables to multiple homes is proof that that's the modem? I do not have a cable that goes directly into the ISP's servers.

I'm not saying it is proof of anything, since I don't know enough about how your connection is configured. But I am very confused about how you played CS on a LAN, given how you've said your connection is set up.

What is the other end of the cable from your PC plugged into?

Arclight wrote:

Regardless the DNS issue is a non issue now that i know i can change it. The issue i have is with the error i get on youtube that seems to have no solution, on my end.

Does the error happen only on YouTube, or have you had problems accessing other sites too?

The years just pass like trains. I wave, but they don't slow down.-- Steven Wilson

Nope and i suppose you're insunuating that the box i mentionened to be located on my the street and stems cables to multiple homes is proof that that's the modem? I do not have a cable that goes directly into the ISP's servers.

I'm not saying it is proof of anything, since I don't know enough about how your connection is configured. But I am very confused about how you played CS on a LAN, given how you've said your connection is set up.

What is the other end of the cable from your PC plugged into?

The other end of the cable goes outside my house and connets into a protection box on the street, which is locked and located quite high....idk what's inside and i have no way of checking inside of it.

just brew it! wrote:

Arclight wrote:

Regardless the DNS issue is a non issue now that i know i can change it. The issue i have is with the error i get on youtube that seems to have no solution, on my end.

Does the error happen only on YouTube, or have you had problems accessing other sites too?

Youtube is the only issue i have besides the DNS (which i might have fixed).

nVidia video drivers FAIL, click for more infoDisclaimer: All answers and suggestions are provided by an enthusiastic amateur and are therefore without warranty either explicit or implicit. Basically you use my suggestions at your own risk.

(I think this is what JBI is trying to ask about when he asks about a modem, please ignore it if he says it's not...)

In most households in the US, we have some sort of cable coming into our house from the ISP. Typically this cable is fiber or coaxial, and runs into a small piece of hardware called the modem to convert the signal to Ethernet. The idea is that the modem connects your household network to the rest of the world. I think JBI wants you to constantly ping your modem and the ISP's router that the modem connects to. Doing this will allow you to see if your internet issues are due to packets being dropped by the ISP or not.

Arclight, you mention that one end of the cable is plugged into your computer and the other end goes out to a box on the street. Is the end that you plug into your computer an ethernet cable?

Lenovo W520IBM dx340Nokia Lumia 928Sony a7 with far too many lenses to list or even count

(I think this is what JBI is trying to ask about when he asks about a modem, please ignore it if he says it's not...)

In most households in the US, we have some sort of cable coming into our house from the ISP. Typically this cable is fiber or coaxial, and runs into a small piece of hardware called the modem to convert the signal to Ethernet. The idea is that the modem connects your household network to the rest of the world. I think JBI wants you to constantly ping your modem and the ISP's router that the modem connects to. Doing this will allow you to see if your internet issues are due to packets being dropped by the ISP or not.

Arclight, you mention that one end of the cable is plugged into your computer and the other end goes out to a box on the street. Is the end that you plug into your computer an ethernet cable?

The cable that connects to my PC is ethernet cable, correct. Frankly i don't lose packets. I got down right disconnected by the DNS but like i said, it works now. What i tried to fix though was the amazingly annoying youtube error which i'm moderately certain is dued to the ISP. I'm gonna talk to them and depending on what i find out i'll decide later what to do. Still if you got any other suggestion i'm open to trying something else on my end.

Last edited by Arclight on Sun Oct 21, 2012 3:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

nVidia video drivers FAIL, click for more infoDisclaimer: All answers and suggestions are provided by an enthusiastic amateur and are therefore without warranty either explicit or implicit. Basically you use my suggestions at your own risk.

The other end of the cable goes outside my house and connets into a protection box on the street, which is locked and located quite high....idk what's inside and i have no way of checking inside of it.

OK, so what was the other PC connected to when you were playing a multiplayer game? Another cable to the box on the street? Or is there a box between the PCs and the wire that goes out to the street?

Arclight wrote:

The cable that connects to my PC is ethernet cable, correct. Frankly i don't loose packets. I got down right disconnected by the DNS but like i said, it works now. What i tried to fix though was the amazingly annoying youtube error which i'm moderately certain is dued to the ISP. I'm gonna talk to them and depending on what i find out i'll devide later what the next step i'll take. Still if you got any other suggestion i'm open to trying something else on my end.

Are you specifically having trouble with certain types of videos, or all YouTube videos? Maybe your ISP is censoring YouTube for some reason?

The years just pass like trains. I wave, but they don't slow down.-- Steven Wilson

The other end of the cable goes outside my house and connets into a protection box on the street, which is locked and located quite high....idk what's inside and i have no way of checking inside of it.

OK, so what was the other PC connected to when you were playing a multiplayer game? Another cable to the box on the street? Or is there a box between the PCs and the wire that goes out to the street?

I have no way of knowing. What i know is that the players were all using the same ISP and they were from my town. I don't know anything else......what's the point here? I don't get it.

just brew it! wrote:

Arclight wrote:

The cable that connects to my PC is ethernet cable, correct. Frankly i don't loose packets. I got down right disconnected by the DNS but like i said, it works now. What i tried to fix though was the amazingly annoying youtube error which i'm moderately certain is dued to the ISP. I'm gonna talk to them and depending on what i find out i'll devide later what the next step i'll take. Still if you got any other suggestion i'm open to trying something else on my end.

Are you specifically having trouble with certain types of videos, or all YouTube videos? Maybe your ISP is censoring YouTube for some reason?

It's random and not all videos are affected, those that are very popular seem to always work (i.e. those that have more than a 10000 views). I doubt it's censorship since if i refresh the page the video starts working again, but if i change the resolution after it starts working, many times it brakes again and i have to refresh again, it's just a nuisance.

Last edited by Arclight on Mon Oct 22, 2012 1:09 am, edited 2 times in total.

nVidia video drivers FAIL, click for more infoDisclaimer: All answers and suggestions are provided by an enthusiastic amateur and are therefore without warranty either explicit or implicit. Basically you use my suggestions at your own risk.

The other end of the cable goes outside my house and connets into a protection box on the street, which is locked and located quite high....idk what's inside and i have no way of checking inside of it.

OK, so what was the other PC connected to when you were playing a multiplayer game? Another cable to the box on the street? Or is there a box between the PCs and the wire that goes out to the street?

I have no way of knowing. What i know was that the players were all using the same ISP and they were from my town. I don't know anything else......what's the point here? I don't get it.

I'm still trying to figure out how your network is configured, since you can't or won't provide the info directly.

Sorry for the confusion, when you said it was a LAN game I thought the other players were in your residence, or at least in your building.If they're not located in your building, technically it isn't a LAN game. (Unless your ISP has set up a massive NAT subnet and put the entire neighborhood behind a NAT router. I've heard of some areas doing this, but it is pretty much unheard of here in the US.)

Edit: I think you're just going to have to deal with your ISP on this. Probably not much we can do from this end.

The years just pass like trains. I wave, but they don't slow down.-- Steven Wilson

Just to throw this out there, since you do seem to be at least somewhat concerned about privacy, I'd suggest buying some type of router for your home. If you really are directly connected, you could be using a public IP, and having your system alive on the public Internet is a bad thing. Getting behind a router, you'll be protected with NAT (not to mention the obvious benefit of being able to share your connection with other devices). It'd be good to get a listing of supported devices from your ISP (it sounded at one point like you may be using IPv6, so I'd certainly check in with them about it).

As others have shared, it's highly unlikely that there's anything bad about using some other DNS provider, it's normally just a tech support issue at most. Heck, if you're using another service, it means less load on their own systems.

Just to get some terminology straight, the connection is PPPoE, not PPoE. And DNS isn't DoS'ing you; while it's possible that your ISP's DNS service is under a DoS attack at times, it's likely just overloaded or broken somehow.

Just to throw this out there, since you do seem to be at least somewhat concerned about privacy, I'd suggest buying some type of router for your home. If you really are directly connected, you could be using a public IP, and having your system alive on the public Internet is a bad thing. Getting behind a router, you'll be protected with NAT (not to mention the obvious benefit of being able to share your connection with other devices). It'd be good to get a listing of supported devices from your ISP (it sounded at one point like you may be using IPv6, so I'd certainly check in with them about it).

As others have shared, it's highly unlikely that there's anything bad about using some other DNS provider, it's normally just a tech support issue at most. Heck, if you're using another service, it means less load on their own systems.

Just to get some terminology straight, the connection is PPPoE, not PPoE. And DNS isn't DoS'ing you; while it's possible that your ISP's DNS service is under a DoS attack at times, it's likely just overloaded or broken somehow.

nVidia video drivers FAIL, click for more infoDisclaimer: All answers and suggestions are provided by an enthusiastic amateur and are therefore without warranty either explicit or implicit. Basically you use my suggestions at your own risk.

Yes and no. While it is indeed no substitute for real security, it does help mitigate any vulnerabilities which may exist in local network services running on his PC.

That said, I suspect he may already be behind a NAT router (out in that box on the street he mentioned), or possibly even an IPv6 to IPv4 gateway. If this is the case the incremental improvement in security from adding another layer of NAT would be fairly small.

The years just pass like trains. I wave, but they don't slow down.-- Steven Wilson

it does help mitigate any vulnerabilities which may exist in local network services running on his PC.

A firewall is a proper way to do that.

With the prevalence of UPnP, port triggering, and any default port forwarding, can't even guarantee that local network services aren't being exposed externally. It doesn't deal with external threats either such as keyloggers phoning home or bots (which originally used IRC clients to phone home and now use HTTP).

SOHO Routers include NAT and a Firewall. Making this pedantic and somehow rounding us back to my original point. NAT is not security, it is primarily an IP address saving scheme.

Wikipedia wrote:

In the mid-1990s NAT became a popular tool for alleviating the consequences of IPv4 address exhaustion.[1] It has become a common, indispensable feature in routers for home and small-office Internet connections. Most systems using NAT do so in order to enable multiple hosts on a private network to access the Internet using a single public IP address.

"Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends. We're so glad you could attend. Come inside! Come inside!"

With the prevalence of UPnP, port triggering, and any default port forwarding, can't even guarantee that local network services aren't being exposed externally.

True. And that stuff really bugs me; I turn it off, preferring to configure port forwarding manually on a case-by-case basis as needed. But I also realize that most people aren't willing to figure out how to configure manual port forwards so yeah, in the general case NAT may not improve security at all.

The years just pass like trains. I wave, but they don't slow down.-- Steven Wilson

Are there any other more realible/ trustworthy free DNS besides Google's? Knowing Google recent track record regarding privacy what risks would i be facing using their DNS?

I'm a big fan of openDNS instead of Google, for the reasons you listed. Don't worry about signing up for it, just use the numbers.

208.67.222.222

208.67.220.220

Do they have DNS ips for ipv6 also? Seems my ISP has for the most part made the switch ipv6

EditNevermind, i found it under the Technology tab> Innovations> ip6 sandbox2620:0:ccc::22620:0:ccd::2

Weird they don't got an alternative DNS... reading fail ccc vs ccd

nVidia video drivers FAIL, click for more infoDisclaimer: All answers and suggestions are provided by an enthusiastic amateur and are therefore without warranty either explicit or implicit. Basically you use my suggestions at your own risk.